Roxana Geambasu

Much of Roxana’s ongoing research aims to develop a new model for privacy for today’s web data-driven world. Today’s web, a complex ecosystem, is largely driven by the collection and monetization of personal data. Many web services, mobile applications, and third-party trackers collect and use personal data for varied purposes, e.g., to target ads, personalize recommendations, and fine-tune prices. At present, users have no window into how their data is being used and there is little or no accountability required of the services, raising the risk for deceptive and unfair practices.

Geambasu and her team seek a new model for how to address such personal privacy issues. Geambasu envisions a web environment where users are more aware of the privacy consequences of their online actions and make more informed decisions about the services they use. In her model, services and applications are held accountable for their actions and are explicitly constructed to protect user privacy. To forge this new web ecosystem, Roxana and her team design, build, and evaluate: (1) new transparency tools that increase society’s oversight regarding how applications use personal data in order to detect and deter unfair and deceptive practices; (2) new development tools that assist programmers in building applications that are privacy-preserving by design; and (3) new abstractions for responsible data management that promote and facilitate a more rigorous and selective approach to data collection and retention.

Roxana is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and a member of Columbia's Data Sciences Institute. She joined Columbia in fall 2011 after finishing her PhD at the University of Washington. For her work in cloud and mobile data privacy, she received an Alfred P. Sloan Faculty Fellowship, a Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, an NSF CAREER award, a ``Brilliant 10'' Popular Science nomination, an Early Career Award in Cybersecurity from the University of Washington Center for Academic Excellence, the Honorable Mention for the 2013 inaugural Dennis M. Ritchie Doctoral Dissertation Award, a William Chan Dissertation Award, two best paper awards at top systems conferences, and the first Google PhD Fellowship in Cloud Computing.

Research Areas

• Security and Privacy
• Software Systems
• Data Privacy
• Networked and Distributed Systems
• Operating Systems
• Scalable Data Systems
• Trustworthy Computing
• Cybersecurity